1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to enclosures for telecommunications applications, and, in particular, to enclosures for receiving hardware for splicing and/or connecting to cables carrying telecommunications signals, such as telephone cables carrying telephone signals.
2. Description of the Related Art
Different types of enclosures are used in telecommunications systems for different purposes. For example, a splicing box is used to hold hardware for splicing two cables together, while a connection box is used to hold hardware for interconnecting one or more of the signals carried by a cable to a local network (e.g., the phones of an office building). Conventional enclosures designed for telecommunications systems have a base and a cover pivotally mounted to the base. The base and the cover define a chamber within which the cable and other telecommunications hardware reside.
When an enclosure is used for splicing two cables together, provision is often made to allow for future connection of one or more of the signals to a local network. This typically involves providing an additional length of cabling within the enclosure, so that a separate connection box can be mounted adjacent to the splicing box to provide the connections to the local network. This requires the provision of cable slack as well as the mounting of a separate connection enclosure next to the splicing enclosure.
When an enclosure is used for connecting a cable to a local network, the inside surface of the cover will typically have a label on which the designations for the different connections are listed. As more and more connections are added, however, the enclosure may become too small to hold all of the hardware. In that case, it would be extremely inefficient to have to replace the old enclosure with a new larger enclosure. It would also be inefficient to have to rewrite the list of designations written on the label on the inside surface of the cover.